Arlington Church Displays Banner in Support of Police Alongside 'Black Lives Matter' Banner

ARLINGTON, MA — A church in Arlington has recently made a stance in support of both the Black Lives Matter movement and the Arlington Police Department at a time when tensions between communities across the country and police departments are reaching a fever pitch.

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The First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church on Massachusetts Avenue has displayed a banner in support of the police department alongside its Black Lives Matter banner. The church emailed a statement to Patch at a time in which tragedies have taken headlines across the country, including in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The church's Black Lives Matter banner has been vandalized five times since 2015. The most recent incident of vandalism occurred in April, when the word "Black" was slashed.

The church's statement can be found below:

Opening Our Hearts and Minds

The First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington is displaying both a Black Lives Matter banner and a statement of appreciation and support for the Arlington Police Department and its commitment to justice and compassion.

Can they sit side by side without contradiction?

We ponder and pray about many issues from the safety of our sanctuary – inequality, poverty, mental health challenges, addiction, violence, homelessness, racism, the effects of incarceration and over-incarceration, and many other forms of injustice.

The police confront these thorny issues directly. Daily. On our behalf. In a society where inequality is growing and many people need help that is unavailable, except perhaps by calling the police. It’s tough work and hard to do well, impossible to do perfectly. The police alone cannot solve our society’s problems.

The Arlington Police Department regularly trains its officers in de-escalation techniques, unconscious bias, procedural justice, having a guardian (rather than warrior) mindset, and appropriate use of force. It started an innovative healing-oriented outreach program to people with addictions and their families, uses restorative justice when appropriate, and has a social work clinician on staff who works closely with officers.

Does this mean that the APD is immune to racial bias, or exempt from criticism and calls for reform? Of course not.

However — We are grateful for the APD’s commitment to improving policing.

We look forward to a day when all police departments are equally committed to good policies and practices.

And we will continue to work and pray for justice and compassion, everywhere.

May we all — all Americans, all people — learn to open our hearts and minds to people who feel different from us.

Our Black Lives Matter statement:

We have displayed a “Black Lives Matter” banner for roughly half of the last 18 months. During that time we have received a couple dozen critical messages from people who seem to interpret “Black Lives Matter” as “only black people’s lives matter” or “black deaths matter” or “police are bad.” We therefore added an explanation to our banner:

"Of course all lives matter . . . we believe that every individual is important and every person deserves to be treated with justice and compassion. We live, however, in a society that often suggests otherwise. Because of the continuing injustice and violence disproportionately faced by people of color, we affirm that Black Lives Matter."

One more thing:

“You can truly grieve for every officer who’s been lost in the line of duty in this country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive. You can have great regard for law enforcement and still want them to be held to high standards.” – Jon Stewart

The Executive Committee of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington